Sharecropping

A Sharecropping Contract: 1882 (Modified) To everyone renting land, the following conditions must be agreed to: For every 30 acres of land (rented by sharecroppers), I will provide a mule team, plow, and farming tools. The sharecroppers can have half of the cotton, corn, peas, pumpkins, and potatoes they grow if the following conditions are followed, but--if not--they are to have only two-fifths. For every mule or horse furnished by me there must be 1000 good sized rails (logs) hauled, and the fence repaired if I so direct. All sharecroppers must haul rails (logs) and work on the fence whenever I may order. The wood must be split and the fence repaired before corn is planted. No cotton must be planted by sharecroppers on their home patches of land. No sharecropper is to work off the plantation when there is any work for them to do for me. Every sharecropper must be responsible for all farming gear placed in his hands, and if not returned must be paid for unless it is worn out by use. Nothing can be sold from their (sharecroppers’) crops until my rent is all paid, and all amounts they owe me are paid in full. I am to gin & pack all of the cotton and charge every sharecropper an eighteenth of his part, the cropper to furnish his part of the bagging, ties, & twine. The sale of every sharecropper's part of the cotton to be made by me when and where I choose to sell, and after taking all they owe me. Source: Grimes Family Papers (#3357), 1882; Held in the Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

William Swain Letter William Swain, a Youngstown, New York, peach grower whose journal and letters recounting his adventures as a Forty‐niner form one of the most vivid accounts of the California Gold Rush.  January 6, 1850  The swollen river prevented the miners from operating near its bed where gold is found most abundantly. Generally they were doing no more than boarding themselves, though occasionally one would make a lucky hit and find this thousands. During the fall, miners could average their ounce clear in working with rockers on the bars and edges of the streams, and those who were lucky enough to make dams across the streams before the rains often made large sums in a few days and frequently in a few hours.  In late November we bought provisions at Long's Trading Post and took packs of fifty pounds each. We traveled over the mountains for twenty‐‐five miles through rain, mud and clouds and arrived on the South Fork on the third day.  After prospecting two days, we located a spot favorable for damming and draining the river. We made our claim and then built a house as soon as possible to shelter our heads from the soaking rains. So here we are, snug as schoolmarms, working at our race and dam. Whenever the rain will permit, a fall of the river will enable us to get into the bed of the river and know what is there. If there is no gold, we shall be off to another place, for there is an abundance of gold here, and if we are blessed with health, we are determined to have a share of it.  You may have some curiosity to know something about our location and dwelling. Our house is a log cabin, sixteen by twenty feet. It is covered with boughs of cedar and is made of nut pine logs from one to two feet in diameter, so that it is quite a blockhouse. It has a good door made of cedar boards hewn our of cedar logs, but no window.  George, I tell you this mining among the mountains is a dog's life. A man has to make a jackass of himself packing loads over mountains that God never designed man to climb, a barbarian by foregoing all the comforts of civilized life, and a heathen by depriving himself of all communication with men away from his immediate circle.  There was some talk between us of your coming to this country. For God's sake think not of it. Stay at home. Tell all whom you know that are thinking of coming that they have to sacrifice everything and face danger in all its forms, for George, thousands have laid and will lay their bones along the routes to and in this country. Tell all that "death is in the pot" if they attempt to cross the plains and hellish mountains. Say to Playter never to think of the jouney; and as for you, stay at home, for if my health is spared, I can get enough for both of us. 

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Day 1 - SharecroppingDay 1 - William Swain MiningDay 1 - Mass ProductionDay 1 - Life in Tammany Hall